


Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered

by Heart_Seoul_Soshi



Category: Descendants (Disney Movies)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-23
Updated: 2018-05-23
Packaged: 2019-05-13 00:46:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,008
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14738931
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Heart_Seoul_Soshi/pseuds/Heart_Seoul_Soshi
Summary: Mother would've been proud. After struggling with herself and waiting endlessly for her magic powers to manifest, Evie's very first spell accidentally has the entire school falling in love with her.





	Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered

**Author's Note:**

> from an anonymous request on tumblr

Evie was really surprised that it took this long. Mother never taught her about what ran within her blood, but Evie always wanted to believe it was there. She could feel it bubbling and boiling inside her the day she and her friends left the Isle of the Lost, a warm power sitting squarely in the center of her chest that built and flowed as the limousine drove her further and further from the crushing weight of the magic barrier.  
  
Magic. The one gift from her mother that kept on giving.

Back on The Isle, Evie would watch her best friend's eyes flash a wicked green and desperately wonder how Mal's own inborn magic found a will and a way to seep past the barrier. It wasn't much, but it was something, and days spent glued to Mal's side had Evie trying to will to life something of her own. Fingers curled, fists clenched, eyes throbbing as Evie shut them so tight in intense concentration and tried to summon up the powers lurking inside her. Her strenuous work garnered her nothing.  
  
She studied Mal, Mal and those dangerous emerald flickers in equally dangerous yet enchanting eyes. Hatred seemed to be Mal's key, hatred and anger and rage sparking a dormant flame to life just long enough to spurn the oppressive power of the magic barrier for one triumphant moment. Longing for her own triumphant moment, Evie attempted to call upon hatred, anger, and rage too, hoping to tap into latent flames as well and spark a flare of magic just once, just to let her truly know it was there. Mal would shake her head, tell Evie it was no use with a steady hand coming to rest on the girl's shoulder. They were trapped, and what Mal could do? It was nothing, really it wasn't.  
  
So in coming to Auradon, Evie knew she'd finally found her chance. Curled up on her side in a plush, warm bed, she would again study Mal. Mal on the bed across the room, her mother's spellbook open in her lap and her brow furrowed as painted nails flipped through page after page. Evie had no spellbook, no recipes for poison concoctions to brew up in a cauldron like her mother had before her, but she had Mal. In having her, she would often abandon the warmth of her own bed in favor of Mal's, silently climbing up beside her and leaning in close to peer over her shoulder as she read. Some nights, Evie would forget to read along entirely, losing herself with her head on Mal's familiar shoulder and the rhythmic sound of her breathing forcing Evie's eyes closed.  
  
She had asked Mal to teach her, but Mal didn't have the time, there was a wand to steal and a kingdom to bring to ruin. Mal had a difficult enough time figuring out the powers of the spellbook on her own, let alone while babying Evie every step of the way. She of course didn't phrase it in quite so harsh a manner; Evie was her best friend, and she would love to explore magic with her, but not now. Not with Maleficent growling and tapping an impatient foot back on The Isle.  
  
Mal cast her first spell on a very vulnerable daughter, a ruse and a trick of trust to get close to that daughter's mother. A hair spell. Evie couldn't stop her pretty face from falling when she got the news from Mal.  
  
That should have been _her_ domain. Hair spells and magic makeovers, potions to turn monstrosity into beauty and beauty into monstrosity should the occasion call for it—and knowing her mother's history, sometimes the occasion _did_ call for it. Her power was right there beneath her ribs, beating against her chest like a wild animal beats for freedom against the bars of a cage, yet she couldn't tap into it. She hadn't remembered lashing out at Mal in a jealous fit after hearing what she'd done to Jane, she only remembered concentration focusing to show her Mal with an uncharacteristic hurt on her face, eyes wide and frown crestfallen at being struck by Evie's sharp tongue. That was all it took to wipe the slate clean, to clear away the rage that Evie used to work so hard to entertain on The Isle.  
  
"...Mal, I'm sorry," Evie fell onto the edge of her bed, caring not if her flop onto the sheets would be deemed ungraceful. "It's just  _frustrating!!_ I'm so sure I can feel my magic inside of me, but when I can't use it? Can't tap into it?? Then I wonder if it's really even there at all."  
  
Soft was a strange word to describe Mal, but it was what she was when it came to Evie, when she abandoned her sketchbook on the desk and crossed the carpet to take a seat next to her. It was instinct at this point, the way Evie's head fell to rest on Mal's shoulder. This close she was wonderfully enveloped in the clean, sweet smell that was Mal's signature, a delectable mixture of shampoo and shower gel and conditioner all rolled into one. Evie's problems were forgotten in an instant as she entertained the idea of turning just so to bury her face in the curtain of Mal's hair and let a deep breath close her eyes.  
  
"Of course it's there," Mal's voice brought Evie right back to her troubles where it usually took her away. "E, you control your mirror, don’t you? It listens to you and no one else, that's your magic coming through. And maybe you can't cast spells or brew potions, but it'll happen eventually. I just really have to lead us to Fairy Godmother's wand right now, I can't teach you just yet."  
  
But Mal never had to be taught. Mal simply broke free of the barrier and flipped a book open, swishing a finger and calling upon magic right then and there. Instinctively, like it should have been for Evie. She harkened back to the lessons she taught herself on The Isle and thought to get mad, bitterly angry at Mal for her mastery and wishing the worst upon her for it. Yet not for a single second did she have the power to do that. She could recklessly snap in Mal's direction, yes, but she couldn't truly get mad at her. Even on the Isle of the Lost when Mal had every intention of plotting her demise, Evie had always idolized her, tried to get close to her, wanted nothing more than to be her friend.  
  
Loved her, in a way.   
  
It was very easy to love Mal when Evie was curled close against her, feeling a pulse beneath her cheek as she tucked into the crook of Mal's neck to hear the hum of her reassuring words.  
  
"I mean, E, I'm no expert, but of course I'll teach you when this is all over. We can learn together."  
  
Evie was hearing, but not listening. All she was listening to was the beat of Mal's pulse, and her own deeply calm breathing as she found her comfort in Mal. After that day, Evie didn't find herself quite so focused on the mission at hand, not when she could focus on how innocent Mal's face turned when she cracked a smile, how her laugh felt like the magic that nestled in Evie's chest. There was still a wand to steal and villains to free, what a terrible time for Evie to fall in love with Mal. But it was just  _so_  easy, the way Mal cooly swaggered the halls of Auradon Prep like she swaggered the dirty streets of The Isle, the way a savage sneer could cut through a terrified crowd in an ultimate display of power...the way she kept Evie close to her side, both protected her and stood with her. It was so easy for Evie to fall for her.  
  
She had to pretend she was very interested in doing homework when they were all gathered in hers and Mal's room one afternoon; the boys would notice her absentminded staring and wistful sighs far quicker than the oblivious Mal ever would. Carlos on his laptop, Jay strutting about in his new Tourney jersey, Mal on the bed and furiously searching her mother's spellbook with a frustrated pout, and Evie at the desk, acting like she was reading her textbook when really she was sneaking quick glances at Mal and inadvertently reading the same two sentences over and over again.  
  
There was an aura about her that drew Evie in, even when Mal was mad, frustrated like she was now as time ticked on and still they had no magic wand. The strange human instinct to yearn for danger, like skydiving or racing cars, that's what Mal brought out of Evie. When her eyes hardened, threatened fire, when she clenched things in her grip just a little too tight or gritted her teeth just a little too loudly, Evie still yearned for her. She yearned for the dark and dangerous Mal just like she yearned for the soft and gentle Mal who told her she was beautiful, that she could do anything she set her mind to, the Mal who would sneak into the Evil Queen's castle late at night back on The Isle just to sit with Evie and enjoy her company.  
  
If only Evie had her powers. She and Mal together would be unstoppable forces, immovable objects. The daughters of evil and malevolence wouldn't need a hand-me-down spellbook to get their way, all they needed was a flick of the wrist, the power inside them. They could storm Auradon, crash the young prince's coronation, snatch Fairy Godmother's wand right out from under her nose and—  
  
"...Mal!!" Evie gasped, coming back to reality from the haze of her daydreaming thoughts.  
  
Mal's eyes were piercing for a fraction of a second as she turned reflexively at the sound of her name, softening only when she saw it was Evie she was looking at.  
  
"What?"  
  
Jay and Carlos looked to her too, waiting expectantly. She was sheepish under all three of their waiting gazes. It was big news she remembered, having completely misplaced the need to tell Mal when she got lost in stealing glances at her, trying to hide her fixation with that sternly studying face.  
  
"...I forgot to tell you, I found out that Fairy Godmother will use the wand at Ben's coronation and the whole school gets to go. The wand will be out of the museum and we'll be there when Ben is crowned king."  
  
Three blank stares met her in a bout of silence. Evie bit her lip, casting her eyes off to the side, bracing herself for Mal to snap. She wasted all that time and all that stress scouring the spellbook when Evie had been sitting on the one thing she needed to hear? Mal would definitely snap. Those eyes would flash and the fists would curl, Evie would be on the receiving end of the amazingly threatening voice that somehow came from such a small body. So she braced herself, like waiting for the thunder to crack after the lightning struck.  
  
"...Mal?" she prodded after the long silence, long enough for her to just want it done and over with.  
  
"...Evie, I could kiss you."  
  
A series of knocks thankfully claimed Mal's and the boys' attention, thankfully because Evie didn't know what she'd do if any of them saw the crimson heat rushing to her cheeks, flooding her skin. Her head ducked down deep into her textbook as Mal got up to answer the door, hiding herself should anyone idly and absentmindedly look her way.  
  
Of course Mal had to say that, just Evie's luck. Her heart thumped erratically in her chest just as she felt that electric tingle of her magic, the two of them working together to knock the wind out of her. Evie was a very smart girl, and it was a terrible sin to label her as ditzy and air-headed, but as of late she'd had the attention span of a small puppy, and her mind wandered immediately.  
  
What sort of kisses would she and Mal have? Evie liked to imagine they'd be tender, romantic ones, written about in storybooks for years to come. A first kiss where Evie's eyes would flutter shut and Mal would be a little scared, hesitant and holding back as she met Evie's soft lips. Or maybe they'd have darker kisses, ones with scratches and pulled hair and bitten lips; they  _were_  villains, after all, dark was in their blood.  
  
Or maybe, if only Evie could, they'd have magical kisses. Ones where Mal would snap her fingers and clear the clouds from the moon, where Evie would give a wave of her hand and send shooting stars sailing across the night sky as they kissed and loved in full view of the entire universe.  
  
Kisses with Mal captured her fancy and her fantasy, and she didn't at all notice Prince Ben at the door, or any of the conversation between him and Mal. If she had, she wouldn't have questioned why Mal made it back to the dorm room after school the next day and went straight for her bed, dropping to the floor to poke her head underneath and dig around. She also wouldn't have curiously questioned why Mal came out of it with a bag of cookies, which she avidly studied through the plastic for a moment before making a break for the door without a word.  
  
"Mal? You made cookies?"   
  
Evie had been standing over her own bed, taking her school things out of her bag now that the day had ended. She wore a soft smile at the thought of big bad Mal baking, amazed that Mal could unknowingly still find ways to endear herself to her. But Mal had stopped in her tracks at the inquiry like a criminal caught under a searchlight, her break for the door not quite so clean.  
  
"Can I have one?" Evie asked, bounding over.  
  
Mal faltered. Evie never saw Mal falter.  
  
"Uh...no, E, these aren't for you. Or me, actually. They're for Ben."  
  
So maybe Evie  _had_ been a  _tad_ ditzy and air-headed lately as she swooned over Mal, but she was sure she wasn't zoning out at this particular moment. She couldn't have heard that right.   
  
"...For Ben?" her head tilted to the side as she expressed her confusion, another inherent trait of that little inner puppy.  
  
"Well, it turns out we'll be nowhere near the wand during the coronation. The only people right up front with it during the ceremony are Fairy Godmother, Ben, the king and queen, and Ben's girlfriend."  
  
"Audrey?"  
  
Evie would've loved the wicked little grin that touched the corners of Mal's lips if she weren't busy being very lost.  
  
"Not for long," Mal smirked, shaking the bag in Evie's face. "I found a love spell. The boys and I baked these last night. One bite and it's goodbye Audrey, hello Mal. I'll be standing there with Ben during his coronation and in the perfect position to snatch the wand."  
  
That was a lot of troubling information for Evie to get in so short a time. She didn't know what to focus on first. Neither did the inner workings of her mind, apparently, for it skipped prioritizing each issue by order of importance and simply let it fall to a roll of the dice.  
  
"Last night? You and the boys?" Evie never saw Mal leave the room the night before. It wasn't hard to figure out that she snuck away when Evie was asleep.  
  
Again, Mal faltered.  
  
"Okay, well, I know you're upset about not being able to use your powers, and I know the whole magic recipe thing is kind of your deal...I didn't want you to feel bad watching me conjure up the love spell instead of you."  
  
"Oh...that makes sense," Evie stared down at the carpet as she spoke, for some reason unable to look at Mal until another mental roll of the dice picked the next subject of focus. "But Mal, a love spell? Those things are...that could get out of hand really fast, Ben's going to be head over heels."  
  
"Here's hoping. This is our only chance to get the wand before it goes back to the museum."  
  
Ben, in love with Mal. Mal, playing along for the sake of the scheme. Mal holding his hand and giggling at his heart eyes and sitting pretty with her unbelievable dimples while the prince pressed kisses to her cheek. Mal frowned at the blank stare on her best friend's face, admittedly concerned because, well, it was Evie, but was in too much of a rush and had already lost too much time answering Evie's inquiries.  
  
"I gotta go, I have to find Ben and give him these before he leaves to get ready for his Tourney game. I'll see you later."  
  
She disappeared in a whirl out the door, that delicious shampoo smell wafting over Evie as purple hair swished behind Mal on her way out. Then Evie was staring at dull wood where she had been staring at an electric smile and fiendishly sparkling eyes just a second ago.  
  
Ben. Ben would soon be staring at an electric smile and fiendishly sparkling eyes. Ben would soon think he was in love with Mal, and Mal would gladly let him believe so. Would she kiss him, Evie wondered? Would Mal commit  _that much_  to her part? Of course not, Evie wanted to think, but at the same time she knew Mal would do absolutely anything to prove herself to Maleficent. Lead a prince around by the nose to get to a magic wand and usher in a new age of villainy.  
  
Fake or not, Ben wasn't worthy of loving her. Ben didn't  _know_ her. He knew a pretty smile and an ethereal pair of eyes, but he didn't know the way Mal played with her hair when she was deep into a drawing, twisting one long strand around and around a finger. And he didn't know that she could sing, that such a rough girl had a voice that warmed like the sun. His father was the reason they had all spent their entire lives in prison, for crying out loud, and if Ben was only just now starting to let that bother him, what kind of person did that truly make him?   
  
Evie didn't need a spell or a potion, she loved Mal all on her own. And Evie's kind of love was total, all-encompassing, leaving no room for Ben.  
  
Ben who would be claiming Mal as his own before the day was out.  
  
It was something like a sudden seizing in her chest, a fierce and painful squeeze like her heart had given out, or fallen victim to an invisible fist plunged deep into her ribs. Then there was the warmth, the warmth that grew into bonafide heat as it stayed not in her chest, but flushed through her whole body like liquid fire. Electric, sizzling, charged—magical. The blue sparks that sprang to life around her hands pierced her skin with tiny zaps, but didn't hurt her. On the contrary, Evie felt... _phenomenal._ Like every good day in Auradon bundled into one, every smell of clean sheets and Mal's hair and freshly made breakfast in the morning, everything wonderful and awe-inspiring in the kingdom coming together to make her feel truly alive.  
  
She laughed as an electric string of blue weaved in and out through her fingers, the purest laugh she'd ever heard from herself.  _Magic._ She had her magic. There it suddenly was for the whole world to see. Evie forgot about Ben, amazingly forgot about Mal, and just let every single fiber of her being take this in. She curled her hands into fists, watched the sparks concentrate and coalesce into a cerulean glow shining out from her palm. She could feel the power building there in her hands like it used to build in her heart, and finally,  _finally,_ she let it loose.  
  
With one fluid flick of her wrists she sent sparks flying up into the air, showering her in those electric tingles as they rained back down over her. What could she do? Turn a dress from blue to pink? Brew up a batch of poison apples? What would  _her_ first spell be, what sort of fun or mischief would she cast? Although she didn't want to admit that she needed it, her first thought was to go for Mal's spellbook. She wanted her magic to come purely from her mind, her will, to simply think of a thing and have it happen, but she was far too wired right now for her brain to master that kind of focus. Just an idea from the spellbook, something to set the gears turning and test the magic.  
  
She stopped on her way to search Mal's side of the room.  _Mal._  Oh, just wait until Mal found out! Evie was actually giddy at the thought of it, and she decided she wanted Mal to be there when she cast her first spell. Evie could wait, that would just make it all so much sweeter.  
  
Her bed felt softer than ever as she laid flat on her back and lifted a hand, conjuring up the sparks once again and simply watching them dance through her fingers, fascinated at the sight. She was so calm, so content. Finally at a real peace with herself.  
  
But peace only lasted until a little while later when Mal and the boys suddenly came bursting through the door, all three scrambling to slam it shut behind them before locking the lock and bracing themselves against the wood.  
  
"This is the first place they'll look!!" Carlos frantically said, his voice squeaking in panic.  
  
"You're right. You're right! Okay, we're grabbing Evie, and we're out the window. Move it or lose it!" Mal said, already storming for the window in question.  
  
Evie sat up, hair falling into her face as she did.  
  
"Why are we out the window?" she innocently wondered.  
  
"Because!! We—!!" Carlos had started to explain, still pressed flat against the door, but stopped short when he saw Evie move to tuck her hair behind her ears.  
  
When he saw the sparks of blue flickering to life around her. Jay followed his wide eyes, as did Mal.  
  
"...Evie? Is that your magic??” Mal gasped.  
  
Evie nodded with an ecstatic little giggle, her smile bright and beaming.  
  
"That would explain it," Jay grumbled, nonchalantly propping the desk chair under the doorknob before deciding to just barricade the thing entirely with the desk itself.  
  
"...Explain what?" Evie asked, smile fading slowly into a confused frown as she expertly willed the sparks away.  
  
Mal had already busied herself with fashioning a rope out of Evie's rolls of fabrics to chuck out the open window, Jay was gauging Mal's bed against his own strength and contemplating an attempt to barricade the door with  _that,_ so it fell to Carlos to fill in the blanks for Evie.  
  
"So we're coming across the front lawn, and who do we run into?" he started.  
  
"Your boy toy Doug," Mal said over her shoulder.  
  
"Your boy toy Doug," Carlos nodded.  
  
"Oh, he's not my boy toy," Evie quickly denied.  
  
Carlos ignored that and went on irregardless.  
  
"Doug wants to know what you're doing this afternoon—"  
  
"—Mal tells him it's none of his business," Jay piped up, grunting as he tried to jerk Mal's bed around by the bedposts.  
  
"But we don't think anything of it, right? He has a crush on you, of course he'd be poking around," Carlos shrugged.  
  
"And he what? Mobbed you?" Evie chided skeptically. She hardly believed Dopey Doug was cause for such hysterics.  
  
But she caught Mal beside her, looking up from her makeshift rope handiwork to silently eye her with a "let him finish" and promptly shut up.  
  
"Kinda hard to mob us when he's busy eating dirt," Jay snickered.  
  
With several snide anecdotes from Mal and Jay, Carlos—gaze nervously twitching to the door every few seconds—told Evie everything.  
  
They had just resigned themselves to let Doug handle his delusions on his own when Chad Charming came sprinting across the lawn out of nowhere, inquiring about Evie as if he had some sort of finely-tuned radar trained on her name.  
  
"Chad was asking about me??" Evie was skeptical of that, too.  
  
"He wanted you to watch him play in the Tourney game today," Mal sounded disgusted.  
  
"But when he found out  _Doug_  wanted you to come watch the band, well..." Jay smirked. "Let's just say we missed our chance to sell tickets for three no-holds-barred rounds of prince versus dwarf."  
  
Like any responsible VKs, Mal and the boys had left them to duke it out on the lawn, scurrying away before they got caught up in any more Auradon kid weirdness. But the Auradon kid weirdness didn't stop with Chad and Doug, as all eyes were on them the second they set foot inside the school. Par for the course, it seemed, the stuck up snobs pointing and talking and whispering about them not only behind their backs, but right in front of them.  
  
Only, the stuck up snobs weren't exactly whispering about  _them._  
  
Mal, leading the way, stopped short in the middle of the school lobby when a girl she'd never seen in her entire life came running up to her with a  _"Hey, aren't you Evie's roommate??"_  
  
"Mal again pointed out that it was none of her business," Jay mentioned.  
  
"It was ridiculous!" Mal channeled her frustration into several test yanks of the rope. "'Evie's so great', 'Evie is  _beautiful'_ , 'She's so smart and talented', 'Do you know if she's seeing anyone?'"  
  
" _Who_  was asking this??" Evie demanded, stunned.  
  
"Heck if I know! Some nobody, I'm sure, but then the whole room swarmed!"  
  
"People suddenly in tears over how pretty you are, guys and girls wanting to know your favorite flower, what kind of candy you like, asking  _us_  to set up dates," Carlos was flustered as he recounted the bizarre list of oddities.  
  
"One girl offered big money for your toothbrush," Jay again played peanut gallery, and gave up on Mal's bed to instead barricade the door with various other odds and ends.  
  
"And then before they can do to us what Chad did to Doug, we race back here only to find sparks flying, literally," Carlos finished.  
  
Evie understood. She was still mightily confused and flabbergasted, but she understood.  
  
"...I accidentally cast a spell and made the entire school fall in love with me??"  
  
It made sense, in a twisted sort of way. It was exactly what Evie had tried in vain to warn Mal of not even an hour ago. Love spells could get out of hand very fast, and in Evie's case, it had  _literally_  gotten out of hand. Evie, whose first reaction to unlocking untold power was not to hone it, not to control it, but to play with it. Of course she'd gotten herself and her friends into one heck of a zany situation.  
  
"...You guys, I am _so_  sorry. It was a complete accident, I had no idea and—"  
  
Evie and the others froze, a sound closely resembling a wildebeest stampede thundering up the hallway, rattling the walls.  
  
"...Apologize later, run now," Mal unfroze first, securing one end of the rope to Evie's bedpost and tossing the other end out the window.  
  
Carlos leapt into Jay's arms when the banging and screaming started, all four VKs suddenly unsure a barricade would even matter if the door was splintered apart by frantically pounding fists.  
  
"Is she in there??"  
  
"Evie, I love you!"  
  
"I love her  _more!!"_  
  
"Evie, you're like the sun and the moon and all the stars in between! Please be mine!"  
  
"You're the light of my life! I'll love you forever!"  
  
"You're my one and only, Evie! Just one date, that's all I ask!"  
  
"Run now!!" Mal urgently said once more, darting over to Evie to take her by the arm and rush her to the window.  
  
"Mal, I have no idea how to undo this," Evie told her just as urgently, halfway out the window.  
  
"No, but you know how to climb," Mal insisted.  
  
And climb she did. Evie first, Mal right after, and the boys close behind. Evie misjudged the distance to the ground when she let go of the rope just a few feet too early, and ungracefully fell onto the soft grass, with Mal misjudging too in her haste and landing on top of Evie with a winded "oof!" It was the first time since stumbling into the dorm room to escape the mob that Mal smiled, propping herself up and looking down into Evie's eyes.  
  
"Leave it to you to upstage me on the first try," Mal's eyes glittered proudly. "I spell a prince, you spell all of Auradon Prep."  
  
The weight of Mal on top of her was nothing compared to the weight of the monumental urge Evie had to kiss her. To have one of those fairytale moments where the chaos and confusion was blotted out for just a minute while Evie closed her eyes and reached up to silently tell Mal exactly what she thought of that smile and that proud twinkle.  
  
Any sort of moment, faux-romantic or otherwise, was ended by Jay scooping up Mal by the collar and breaking into a run in one fluid motion, to which Carlos complimented the act by gently helping Evie to her feet and hurrying her along. The coast appeared to be relatively clear as they scurried along the side of the building, pressing themselves flat against the stone and ducking down behind the bushes. The glitter in Mal's eyes that shone with pride for Evie just a second ago turned devilish.  
  
"...You know, stealing the wand would be a piece of cake with a mindless army of teenagers that Evie could bend to her will," Mal mused.  
  
"Now is not the time, Mal," Carlos scolded.  
  
"They'll tear us limb from limb to get to Evie," Jay said.  
  
"No, they'll have to tear  _me_  limb from limb to get to Evie, and I would love to see them try," Mal growled. Evie's heart somersaulted.  
  
As much as she would love to see her very own knight in shining armor leap into action, the need to see Mal  _not_ torn limb from limb was a much more pressing one. She settled a hand on Mal's shoulder, scooting in close as she did.  
  
"We have to figure out a way to end this magic. Who knows if it'll wear off on its own, or if it'll just get worse and worse until...hey, wait a minute, why aren't  _you_  guys under the spell?"  
  
It was clear from three blank gazes that there had been no time to consider that in all the blind panic.  
  
"...Yeah, why aren't we under the spell?" Carlos looked to Mal, then to Jay, as if either of them had an answer he was looking for.  
  
"Because we're us, we can't be in love with Evie," Jay scoffed, rolling his eyes as he shoved Carlos.  
  
"Yeah, exactly," Mal laughed, laughed at the whole ridiculous notion.  
  
This time, it was Evie who curled her fingers like claws and clenched them into fists, squeezing tight like one would squeeze and crush a heart into dust.  
  
"What's so funny about someone loving me?" she snapped, speaking loudly like a deafening sound could block out the sight of her furiously fighting back tears.  
  
"You mean being spelled to love you," Mal still lingered on a chuckle.  
  
"Oh, like how you spelled Ben to love  _you?"_  
  
Evie's tone was a slap in the face. Suddenly Mal wasn't so amused anymore.  
  
"...E, what do you—?"  
  
Evie shot to her feet for no other reason than she just couldn't stand to crouch behind bushes next to Mal anymore like some common criminal keeping off the heat.  
  
"We're only saying that we're your friends, E. We can't fall in love with you," Mal went on. "That's just...friends don't do that, spell or no spell."  
  
"No, I suppose not. I don't see how any sort of magic could get through  _your_  thick head, Mal."  
  
Now Mal got to her feet, instantly shifting into a classic Isle swagger that flipped her switch from "Evie's Best Friend" to "Daughter of Maleficent".  
  
"What did you just say?" emerald was alight in her narrowed eyes, and her ability to stare Evie down like she was nothing more than some big-mouthed nobody was truly frightening.  
  
Jay and Carlos didn't even have a chance to scramble into the fray and stop the two from saying things they would  _really_ regret, for the unique sound of heels stabbing and tromping through grass rounded the corner and scrambled into the fray for them.  
  
"Excuse me, did I just hear you raise your voice at her?"  
  
_"Audrey?"_  Mal blurted.   
  
Her stunned irritation at Evie was knocked clean out of left field by the sight of Audrey with a furious gaze, a hand sternly on her hip while a purse dangled from her arm. In a move that no one thought they would ever see, Audrey stormed between the two like she intended to protect Evie from Mal with nothing more than styled hair and a keen fashion sense.  
  
"Listen, I don't know who you think you are—what with your mom being a horned witch and all—but you don't get to treat Evie like anything other than the absolute queen that she is!"  
  
"...Oh, this is so bad," Evie whispered under her breath.   
  
Play with magic for a few measly seconds and make a princess fall for you. Well done, Evie. Solid plan. At least attempt to salvage the situation.  
  
"Audrey, listen. I—"  
  
Audrey whirled on her with a shining white smile. The wafting scent of shower gel and conditioner and shampoo that came from her smelled nothing like Mal.  
  
"Don't worry Evie bear, my family knows how to deal with people like _her."_  
  
"Evie bear?!" Mal practically choked on the words.  
  
If Audrey had any intention of ripping her limb from limb like the others, it would have to wait.  
  
"Forget about that dragon's daughter. We'll go on a picnic, just you and me. I know the coziest spot in the forest. You've probably seen it, you know, once upon a dream," Audrey giggled, biting her lip and batting her eyes.  
  
Mal was horrified.   
  
"And we're moving!" she ordered, rushing forward to dart in front of Audrey and grab Evie by the hand before running off with the boys in hot pursuit.   
  
Audrey's royal pouts and shouts about her stolen "Evie bear" and inability to give chase in her expensive heels sounded all the way behind them, no doubt grabbing attention and tipping off anyone lurking nearby that Evie was in the vicinity.  
  
"We need an actual place to hide, you guys!" Carlos yelled as he headed up the rear.  
  
"We're working on it!" Mal called over her shoulder. "But when the whole school is after Evie, the  _whole school_  is kinda off-limits!"  
  
Evie dragged Mal to a stop as the lightbulb above her head dragged  _her_  to a stop. Carlos and Jay nearly crashed into her.  
  
"The chemistry lab!" she said excitedly. "School is out, everyone's getting ready to head to the Tourney field for the big game, no one will be in the chem lab!"  
  
"The game?" Jay repeated, gears turning. "Hey, if the entire school is whacked out on a love spell, why hasn't the whole Tourney field come stampeding yet?"  
  
"Out of sight, out of mind," Mal shrugged. "Everyone was fine until they saw us, which made them think of Evie, which started this whole thing."  
  
"So while we're laying low in the chemistry room, we can use the lab and Mal's spellbook to try and break this spell!" Evie added.  
  
Carlos frowned at her.  
  
"The stuff in the chem lab isn't exactly eye of newt and old hag's cackle," he pointed out.  
  
"No, but the right combination of chemicals can be used to substitute virtually any magical ingredient," Evie spoke with a matter-of-fact smile, happy and proud to show off her smarts.  
  
Mal's head was on a swivel as she cast a look around at how woefully out in the open they still were.  
  
"Alright Jay, I need you to sneak back to our room and get my spellbook. Carlos and I will get Evie to the chemistry lab."  
  
Jay looked over his shoulder in the direction they just came, knowing they'd left the wild mob outside Mal and Evie's room.  
  
"Okay, got it," he firmly said nonetheless.  
  
He hunkered down low into a crouch, already in stealth mode, and padded away to head back inside.  
  
They were all from The Isle, and it served them all well now as Mal led Carlos and Evie around the school. They knew how to be invisible, how to disappear if they wanted to. With Mal's cool leader instincts analyzing the situation, making the plan, dishing out the order for Jay to go one way while they went the other, Evie was already regretting snapping at her the way she did. Regretting, but still altogether hurt. When all this was over, she supposed she would cry. When her beautiful eyes didn't have to be peeled and her focus didn't have to be laser-locked, Evie would almost certainly find herself crying over Mal's words and mocking laughter.  
  
As expected, the chemistry room was empty, they could see it through the little window fixed into the door. There was a split-second where Evie's heart froze as Mal twisted the doorknob, unsure if it would be unlocked, but with a click and a swing the door opened, and the three of them filed inside. They kept the lights off—there was enough afternoon sun coming through the windows—and Mal again made and executed the plan.  
  
"Carlos, lock the door and keep watch," she pointed him to his post. They hadn't been spotted on the way there, but that didn't mean mindless Evie-loving hordes weren't prowling the corridors in search of them.  
  
Mal herself did one fast check of the room, and then placed herself at Evie's side in front of one of the long lab tables.  
  
"Okay E, what did you do?" Mal asked, palms flat on the table.  
  
"What?"  
  
"When you accidentally cast the spell! Was there an incantation, did anything even  _remotely_  rhyme??"  
  
Evie wildly shook her head.  
  
"I didn't say anything, Mal. I didn't  _do_  anything."  
  
"You had to have done something," Carlos helpfully and not-so-helpfully offered.  
  
"What were you thinking? What were you feeling?"  
  
Technically, Evie had an answer to that. She was thinking about Mal. She was thinking about Ben. She was thinking about Mal  _with_  Ben, and feeling more than anything that she wanted it to be Mal and Evie. But it wasn't like she could say that, especially not after Mal's little "friends don't fall in love with friends" spiel.   
  
"I was only thinking how amazing it was to finally have my powers...and thinking about how I wanted you to be the first one to know."  
  
She could see Mal softening after that. Switching back from "Daughter of Maleficent" to "Evie's Best Friend".  
  
"But magic is tricky, right?" Evie went on. "It could've been anything from the tiniest little thought to the tiniest way I moved that could've accidentally cast a spell."  
  
"Especially with your powers so fresh out of the box," Mal nodded, agreeing. "Okay, that just makes the spell harder to break, but...not impossible, I guess."  
  
She didn't sound at all convinced. But how could she be, fighting a completely random love spell with zero parameters to work with? There was really nothing to be done about it until Jay came back with the spellbook, nothing but keep an eye out and hope another dive wouldn't have to be made out the window. At the very least, they were on the ground floor this time. In their wait, Evie sighed and curled her pinky around Mal's, knowing that in the worst of times, the two of them liked to have some sense of touch between them.  
  
"...I'm sorry I called you thickheaded," Evie said remorsefully.  
  
"I'm sorry I went all Mal on you," Mal never hesitated in an apology to Evie. "But why  _did_ you call me thickheaded? All I said was—"  
  
"I know what you said," Evie didn't need to hear it again. "I was just...overwhelmed with this whole ordeal and losing it in the wrong place at the wrong time. You're not thickheaded, Mal."  
  
"Well that's good to know," Mal laughed. "We'll figure something out. And after we break this spell then we're back to stealing the wand, heading home, and taking over Auradon."  
  
"...And what about you and I learning magic together?"  
  
"Oh, yeah..." Mal had forgotten. "I guess that'll just take a little longer than we thought."  
  
It seemed a lot of things had been taking longer than originally thought. And some things simply wouldn't be happening at all.  
  
"Here comes Jay," Carlos told them, unlocking the door.  
  
Jay sped into the classroom with Mal's spellbook in hand, out of breath and his beanie disheveled on his head.  
  
"They saw you?" Mal guessed, hurrying over to him.  
  
"Yeah, but I shook them off," Jay panted and handed the spellbook over.  
  
The sound of Mal flipping through the pages was something that automatically drew Evie over to her like a reflex after all those nights of reading over her shoulder.  
  
"There has to be something, right?" Evie somewhat fretted as Mal just searched and searched to no avail. "I mean, this spellbook has the love spell you used on Ben, so obviously there should be a spell to break it, too."  
  
"But Ben is just one guy with a bag of cookies. We're talking about the whole school here," Carlos said. "That's a lot of baking."   
  
"We're not putting anymore spells on cookies," Mal shot him down. "We need something bigger than that."  
  
She thumbed through the book one way, then thumbed through it back the other way. Nothing. Knowing she'd skipped a few parts here and there, she started going page by page, slowly and painstakingly. Something caught Evie's eye as she looked on, and with a gentle hand on Mal's arm she stopped her from turning the page.  
  
"'Witches and warlocks, beware: there is a formidable foe stronger than your strongest enemy,'" she read aloud. "'Swimming in an enchanted lake can leach your power and tear down your defenses, reversing all spells that have been cast.'"  
  
"Reversing all spells!!" Carlos repeated. "That's it!"  
  
Mal rolled her eyes and snapped the book shut.  
  
"What, we're just gonna search the kingdom for an enchanted lake and then dunk the entire student body in it?"  
  
"Well if we get desperate we might not have any other choice, Mal!" Evie said in exasperation.  
  
"No, that's insanity," Mal firmly stood by her word. "Forget my mother's spellbook, we're going about this all wrong."  
  
The three of them stared her down in bewildered confusion, waiting on an explanation.  
  
"Evie is a villain," Mal gestured to her. "She's a sorceress, a witch, an evil enchantress."  
  
Mal certainly had a way with words. A way of making each and every one of them hurt.  
  
"Her spell has run amuck and we can't count on another villain to help us end this madness. We need the big guns."  
  
"What does that mean?" Jay crossed his arms.  
  
"It means that as headmistress of Auradon Prep, Fairy Godmother should be leaving for the Tourney field to support her school in the big game any minute now."  
  
Carlos went as white as his hair, turning paler and paler before their very eyes.  
  
"...You want us to break into Fairy Godmother's office?" he squeaked.  
  
"It's not breaking if the door isn't locked. And what headmistress needs to lock her door with a school full of goody two-shoes?" Mal said with a devious grin. "And no,  _we_  are not sneaking into Fairy Godmother's office. Evie and I are sneaking into her office. You two need to distract the mob and keep them off our tail."  
  
"How are we supposed to do that??" Carlos demanded.  
  
"Hey, didn't you guys just say you saw Evie heading for the library in a brand new outfit?" Mal innocently asked.  
  
Jay and Carlos had been at the other end of Mal's schemes enough times to get the hint.  
  
"...We saw Evie heading for the library in a brand new outfit," Jay grudgingly nodded, grabbing Carlos by the collar and dragging him out of the chemistry lab.  
  
The girls waited a few minutes, hiding out still until enough time had passed for the ruse to be well on its way, the path to be good and clear with everyone following after Carlos and Jay with their phony lead.  
  
"...Think they'll keep them away long enough?" Evie asked.  
  
"They know what they're doing. Come on."  
  
Mal took her by the hand, leading her along out of the classroom and down the halls. They stepped lightly, as only Isle kids knew how, moving as one without the slightest noise. It felt like actually being on The Isle again, needing to duck and cover, slip through the cracks, creep around, not make a sound. And truthfully...Evie hated it. It wasn't nice to feel at home again. It wasn't like "good old times". It was being scared and lost, and it wasn't at all fun. Evie squeezed Mal's hand a little tighter, and if she noticed—which she most likely didn't—she made no mention of it. They just continued to traverse the hallways in complete silence, keeping their eyes open wide as they came nearer to the staircase that would take them up a floor to Fairy Godmother's office.  
  
"...Hey, aren't you Evie?"  
  
They froze. Dared slow, unwilling glances over their shoulders. Some kid they'd never seen before, clearly on his way to scream his brains out at the Tourney game with an oversized jersey that swam on him and a proud "AP" painted on his cheek in a vivid blue and yellow.  
  
"...You  _are_  Evie!!" he gasped. "Oh my gosh, you're even more beautiful in person, how is that possible??"  
  
Mal didn't even let Evie fumble for an excuse before she took off running, toting her best friend behind her.  
  
"Wait! Can't I just run my fingers through your perfect, silky hair??"  
  
Now  _this_ felt like good old times. Just her and Mal, hand in hand as they ran for their lives and didn't look back, speeding off as fast as their feet could carry them. Jay had long ago gracefully stepped aside to let Evie take his place as Mal's partner in crime, and no matter what the risk was, Evie would never tire of this feeling.   
  
The two found the stairs as they zoomed around a corner and didn't stop, taking them two at a time until they had finally ducked into the headmistress' office and closed the door behind them. Mal and Evie were breathing hard, and out of instinct and necessity they tried to keep that silenced too, hearts pounding and lungs crying for air as they strained their ears to listen at the door and make sure they weren't followed.  
  
"...I think he's gone," Evie whispered.  
  
"Way gone," Mal joked.  
  
They didn't have a moment to lose, and went right to work.  
  
"Search the shelves. I'll take this bookcase, you take that one," Mal pointed Evie to the opposite side of the office.  
  
"Mal, she's not going to have any spellbooks," although Evie disagreed with the method, she followed Mal's directions and skimmed a finger down the spines of the books anyway. "Magic in Auradon is retired, remember?"  
  
"Oh please. If the most powerful fairy in the kingdom is just willingly giving up her magic then my mother is just a little cranky."  
  
"Her wand is in a museum," Evie reminded her, as if that proved her point.  
  
"You don't need a wand to do magic," Mal countered, fixing Evie with a hard stare and knowing that proved  _her_ point.  
  
But in spite of her reasoning, both she and Evie were only coming up with books on Auradon's history, the royal family's history, atlases full of maps, frighteningly thick tomes of algebra and geometry. Nothing magical or mystical.  
  
Four words had been gnawing at Evie through her entire search, distracting her to the point where she was looking but not seeing as she went through the contents of the bookshelf.  
  
"...Mal, about the wand..."  
  
Mal didn't even break her focus.  
  
"What about it?"  
  
"...What if we didn't steal it?"  
  
Well, so much for focus.  
  
When Mal turned around her narrowed eyes scornfully studied Evie like she'd just sprouted wings, her head going in circles because no way did those words just come out of Evie's mouth.  
  
"... _What_ did you just say?"  
  
Evie tried to shrug cutely, innocently, before remembering this was Mal she was dealing with, and Mal unfortunately wasn't so easily deterred by a shrug of the shoulders and a batting of dazzling brown eyes.  
  
"What if we just...stayed here?" Evie suggested.  
  
"Are you insane?"  
  
Evie was at least relieved that on her side of the office, she was out of throttling distance.  
  
"Mal, this is...this is Auradon! There's no rotten garbage in the streets, the food is fresh and  _tasty,_  our beds are cozy soft and we don't get poked by rusted bedsprings! Auradon isn't so bad!"  
  
Mal debated for a moment on whether or not she should again make the switch to "Daughter of Maleficent".  
  
"So let me get this straight. You want to abandon the plan, hide out in Auradon, and assume brand new names and identities? Because that's what we're going to have to do if our parents break free on their own and find out we left them stranded on The Isle because you wanted to play princess, E!!"  
  
"We won't have our magic when we go back to The Isle," tears sprang to life in Evie's eyes. All that time wishing and hoping to come into her powers, only to say goodbye as they scampered back home with a wand in hand.  
  
"That's what this whole thing is about; stealing the wand, tearing down the barrier,  _keeping_ our magic, and taking over Auradon!"  
  
"Do you even want to take over Auradon?"  
  
It was a simple question. A yes or a no. Yet it slammed into Mal like a speeding truck.  
  
"Because  _we_  are not taking over Auradon, Mal. Our parents are. And what makes you think things are going to be any better when they have the whole kingdom at their feet?"  
  
"...Because then I'll be good enough."  
  
Mal didn't even recognize her own choked, timid voice. Rather hated the fact that something so weak and feeble just came from her mouth, actually.  
  
"This is Maleficent we're talking about, M. Do you think she'll smile and hug you and call you her little girl when you hand her the keys to the kingdom? Or do you think she'll roll her eyes and scold you for not handing her the keys to the entire world? It doesn't matter what you do or how hard you work, she's just going to keep building new hoops for you to jump through. And when you fall? Do you honestly want her to have her magic back when you fall?"  
  
Mal actually flinched at the thought, knowing that Evie had a scarily valid point. Life with Maleficent was enough of a horror show without having to contend with the darkest of dark magic on top of it.  
  
"But Evie, this isn't just about my mother. Don't you want to be free from The Isle? Don't you want us to—"  
  
The strange tone and even stranger phrasing perked Evie's ears up.  
  
"...Want us to what?" she asked. "Who's 'us'?"  
  
"Well, you and me. We're supposed to be learning magic together, aren't we?" Mal spoke petulantly, shoving her hands in her pockets like she'd fumbled for a filler answer and didn't want to be questioned anymore about it. "How are we supposed to do that if we stay stuck in Auradon where _the_ Fairy Godmother doesn't even have a list of mystical crystals scribbled onto a sticky note on her desk? If we stole the wand and broke the villains out of their prison, we'd rule the kingdom and have the power of evil  _and_ good on our side. You and I would be unstoppable, Evie."  
  
Evie was taken over by a teary smile, crossing the room to stand before Mal.  
  
"You and I will always be unstoppable, M. So long as we're together."  
  
There it was again. Mal softening before her very eyes.  
  
"And if I'm being very, very honest, I'm okay with us being together on The Isle. But I'd much rather us be together in Auradon," Evie went on.  
  
She'd much rather them be together.  _Together_  together. Her sigh was shaky, getting all tangled up in nerves and a pounding heart as it fluttered past her lips. Mal would be a hard one to convince. Impossible, Evie might say, even for her. If they weren't caught red-handed in Fairy Godmother's office and booted back to the Isle of the Lost, then they'd slip away unseen and just get right back on track with the plan to steal the magic wand. Mal's mind was surely set. So either way, Evie really felt like she didn't have much to lose.  
  
"Mal, if it'll help break this spell...I  _was_  thinking of something pretty specific before my powers came to me."  
  
Mal was a bit floored by the sudden subject change, but since it was a much easier one to discuss, she hung onto every word.  
  
"Yeah? What?"  
  
No matter how much she wanted to or even how much she needed to, Evie couldn't look her in the eyes just then.  
  
"...How much I didn't want you to put that love spell on Ben. I didn't want to see him in fake love with you."  
  
Now Evie was the one sounding weak and feeble, and nothing short of broken. Mal was shocked to hear all these traitorous things coming from her best friend's own mouth.  
  
"Why not??" she demanded. "Him being in fake love with me is the only way I'll get up front at the coronation and be able to take the wand!"  
  
"Being in fake love with you also means he'll hold your hand and keep you close, kiss your cheek and play with your hair and smile like a fool while he tells you all the beautiful things he sees in you...it's all the things I want to do with you, Mal."  
  
It was a much, much bigger bomb drop than the news that Evie wanted to stay in Auradon and forget the scheme to end all schemes.  
  
"So knowing that I'd have to sit and watch Ben pretend to be in love with you and watch you pretend to love him back, I was jealous and hurt and...then I had my powers. And now that I'm saying it out loud, accidentally spelling an entire school to fall for you and shower you with affection sounds exactly like something a lovesick heart would do," Evie laughed weakly, morbidly amused by the sudden clarity of it all.  
  
Mal was just very busy doing a striking impression of Carlos on a bad day, all glassy eyed and open-mouthed.  
  
"You're in love with me?" she said dully.  
  
"It makes me a horrible excuse for a villain, I know, but if it jogs that magic mind of yours and helps you think of a way to break the spell, then that's the whole truth. I love you, Mal. And I'm so sorry."  
  
Evie pushed past Mal before she could see the tears fall, the fact that she'd felt the need to apologize for love being so jarring and contradictory to everything she'd learned in Auradon's history books that she just had to get out of the room and leave Mal to her own devices, before her best friend could either accidentally or purposely say something to shred Evie's heart into even tinier pieces.  
  
"Casting a love spell won’t have an effect on people who  _can’t_  love you, it won’t have an effect on people who already do," was what Mal said, turning around just as Evie reached the door. "That's why none of us were spelled. Jay, who loves you like a best friend, Carlos, who loves you like a sister—"  
  
"And you, who also loves me as a best friend," Evie morosely said, finishing the sentence herself as hearing it from Mal would be too much to take right now.   
  
She got it, loud and clear and plain as day. She was Mal's best friend. And for Mal, the junior league evilest of them all, just the word "love" on its own was probably an exaggeration. She clearly didn't even love Evie as a best friend, she just strongly liked her as a best friend. Or maybe for Mal, even "strongly liked" was a bit of a stretch.  
  
"...Evie, even for someone who's used to threatening on a daily basis, this is still probably a scary thing for me to say, so could you maybe look at me while I say it?"   
  
Quite the opposite approach to Evie, who maintained a fierce staring contest with Fairy Godmother's carpet the entire time she'd spoken to Mal. But with those shiny and wet pools of rich brown watching her, Mal faltered over every thought that was struggling desperately to turn itself into a word.  
  
"Okay, nevermind, looking at me wasn't the best idea," Mal turned red. She actually blushed.  
  
"What were you going to say?" Evie asked.  
  
"...I really don't know, actually. I feel like it was something along the lines of you always being there for me, even the times when I didn't want you to, and something about how it just doesn't feel right when I'm not with you. Something about your smile and your laughter and this weird lightness I feel whenever you hug me. I don't know, it made a lot more sense in my head before I lost it all," Mal shyly admitted, thoughtless words spilling out in a rush. "E, there’s  _something_  here inside me when I'm with you, but...I don't know what love feels like. I couldn't tell you if that's it or not."  
  
Against her better judgement, Evie shuffled in closer. There was Mal, just drawing her in again like she always had the power to do.   
  
"Would it help if I told you what it feels like to me?" Evie sniffed.  
  
Mal couldn't say no, or yes, or I don't know. She didn't say anything else at the moment, really. All she did was nod once, giving Evie the go-ahead. After several struggling thoughts of her own, Evie found that even for her it wasn't quite so simple to explain.  
  
"Well...it's sort of like I said; it doesn't matter if I'm with you in Auradon or if I'm with you on the Isle of the Lost. Just as long as I'm with you, anyplace feels like home...oh, that's a terrible thing for a villain kid to say, I'm sorry Mal."  
  
"Why do you keep apologizing? No one ever told me love was something to apologize for."  
  
"Sorry, that's just The Isle talking..."  
  
"And there's another apology," Mal laughed.  
  
Evie bit her lip, embarrassed.  
  
"It's cute when you do that," Mal seemed to speak without fully getting permission from her brain, her expression suddenly mortified as her own words echoed in her head.  
  
Then she and Evie shared in a laugh together, both bewildered they were seriously having this conversation but both so utterly comfortable and at peace with each other that they continued to have it nonetheless.  
  
"...Mal, you don't have to love me. You don't even have to like me. I just want you to keep being my best friend, that's all I need," Evie said quietly. "So let's just break this crazy spell and pretend that all of this never happened."  
  
Mal slowly shook her head.  
  
"...You can't break the crazy spell you have over  _me_ , Evie. There is a spell, I know that much. I knew it when I walked into first period back on The Isle and wanted to know who that beautiful girl sitting in my seat was. And I might be an amateur, but I still know enough about magic to realize that you had it long before you got your powers. I don't know what I'm feeling, but my heart is telling me something, the heart I didn't even know I had. It sounds like it's telling me that I should be more than just your best friend."  
  
Evie found her eyes threatening to cry a little bit harder.  
  
"You're only saying that because you know it's what I want to hear," she glumly said, wiping tears away with a shaking hand.  
  
The denial seemed to make Mal unsure herself, her expression twisted with confusion as she fought to figure out whether she or Evie really held the truth.  
  
"...Kiss me," Mal said.  
  
Evie met the request with a gasp and several incredulous blinks.  
  
"What??"  
  
"Kiss me," Mal said again, a fiery shine dancing to life in her eyes. "If I don't mean any of this, my heart will make me back away from you because this isn’t what I really want. But if I do mean it—"  
  
"Then you and I will...we'll kiss, Mal," Evie said it like she was sure Mal didn't understand the gravity of what she was asking.  
  
The smile that forever ago stole Evie's heart was right there in front of her, turning Mal's waiting lips in silent encouragement.  
  
"It's okay, E," Mal took both of Evie's hands. And closed her eyes. "...Kiss me."  
  
Evie was sure she was dreaming. Or perhaps she hit her head in one of the frantic escapes and was knee-deep in a fevered delusion while Mal and the boys were working to clear away the twittering birds circling around her head. But just like history had taught and told, if a kiss was what was needed to snap the princess out of it and bring her back to cruel reality, then so be it.  
  
And when she leaned in close, Mal didn't back away. When Evie kissed her, sweetly and lovingly, Mal still didn't back away. What she did was kiss Evie back, leaning into her too and letting her hands loose so she could put her arms around her. Seemed they knew now just how much of the truth Mal was telling. Evie didn't wake up, or snap out of a delusion, for it really was no dream. She had just kissed Mal, and Mal was looking back at her with the pinkest cheeks and the most breathtaking smile.  
  
There was a knock that was strangely somehow both timid and insistent, and then the door to the office was slowly creaking open before them.  
  
"Hey mom? Before you leave for the game, could you...?" Jane, with a folder and a stack of papers tucked into the crook of her arm, stopped short at the sight of Evie, her vivid eyes widening.  
  
Mal instantly searched for an alternate escape route, and upon finding none, started a search for something to at least throw at Jane to distract her long enough to grab Evie and get her out of there.  
  
"Mal? Evie? What are you two doing in here?" Jane innocently wondered, smiling a little as seeing Mal brought back memories of magic and the wonderful new hair she'd been gifted.  
  
If Evie and Mal could see themselves, they'd be pleasantly amused; they were identical pictures of stunned bewilderment.  
  
"Uh, Jane? Evie's here," Mal pointed a finger to her best friend. "You know,  _Evie?"_  
  
"...Yes, I see her," Jane nodded.  
  
Mal and her best friend exchanged a look that neither of them could read.  
  
"Don't you have anything you want to say to her?" Mal prodded.  
  
They could see the puzzled thoughtfulness furrowing Jane's brow.  
  
"Hi?" she guessed.  
  
Evie gasped.  
  
"...M, the spell! I think it's broken!" she exclaimed, looping her arm through Mal's.  
  
Poor Jane wasn't getting any explanations.  
  
"Spell? There was a spell?" she curiously wondered.  
  
"Spell...ing bee! Spelling bee!" Mal quickly said with a too-wide grin. "Yeah, Fairy Godmother sent us up here to find the word list for the surprise spelling bee next week, but it looks like she already got it herself! Well, I guess we’ll get going then. Okay? Cool, see ya!"  
  
She and Evie raced out of the headmistress' office just as quickly as they'd first raced into it, leaving Jane in the dust without another word.  
  
"Why am I always the last to know?" she muttered to herself.  
  
There they were again, Mal and Evie running side by side. More giddy than on their last go-around, but still, they were exactly where they needed to be. They didn't stop until they made it out the front doors, where the sight of Chad and Doug coming out of their brawl with mussed-up hair and dazed expressions was a welcome one. Dopey's son fixed his woefully askew glasses, spotted Evie across the lawn, and waved at her with a pleasant smile. That was it, just a wave and a smile before brushing the dirt off his sweater vest and strolling off in the direction of the Tourney field.  
  
"The love spell is really broken? Just like that?" Mal marveled. "How? What happened?"  
  
Evie, thinking back on the last few minutes, had a shy little guess to hazard.  
  
"...True love's kiss?"  
  
Mal's jaw almost dropped. The ultimate spell breaker, of course. How could that not have been her first thought?  
  
"Then I really love you?" she marveled at that, too.  
  
"Well, the magic usually doesn't lie," Evie giggled. “And you said it yourself, that spell wouldn’t have worked on the people who already love me. Carlos, who loves me like a sister, Jay, who loves me like a best friend, and you who...feels a little bit more.”  
  
She held out her hand, and when Mal took it, laced their fingers together, Evie didn't need to will mystical sapphire sparks to life. She felt the electricity all on her own.  
  
"You don't have to say it," Evie promised her. "I told you that you didn't have to feel it, and you don't have to say it, either. It's not exactly like us Isle kids are any good at it, so—"  
  
"I love you, Evie," Mal said after a scarily deep breath to calm and steady everything from her galloping heartbeat to her trembling legs.  
  
Well, if she insisted.  
  
"...I love you too, Mal," Evie fought off her next bout of tears to place the softest and most grateful of kisses on Mal's cheek. "...But I guess I just have to sit this round out and wait until this whole thing with Ben is over, huh?"   
  
Her heart sank into the murkiest of pits as the realization hit her.   
  
"I didn't put a love spell on Ben," Mal told her with a smugly proud grin.  
  
_"...What?"_  
  
"In the middle of getting chased through Auradon Prep by a ravenous horde screaming their undying love for you, the cookies never made it to Ben. I'm ninety percent sure they're laying trampled into tiny bits in the math hallway somewhere."  
  
Evie let out a disbelieving laugh. All of this had started because of the one simple fact that Ben would be hopelessly in love with Mal by the end of the day.  
  
"So I accidentally enchanted the whole school for nothing?" Evie laughed incredulously at the ridiculous irony of it all.  
  
"...I wouldn't say for nothing," Mal reminded her.  
  
"...You're absolutely right, M. I wouldn't either."  
  
They saw Carlos and Jay coming long before the boys ever reached them, for their feet dragged them lethargically across the lawn and they collapsed into panting heaps in the grass before Mal and Evie's eyes.  
  
"I think...the spell...is broken..." Jay said in gasping breaths. Even his athletic build had been put through the wringer in leading a wild goose chase up and down the grounds of Auradon Prep.  
  
As the son of Cruella De Vil, Carlos was no stranger to seeing spots. The ones dotting his vision as he stared blankly up at the sky were no surprise.   
  
"You boys look tired," Evie said with a wickedly playful smile.  
  
"Exhausted," Jay and Carlos said together.  
  
"Aw, that's too bad. Because the last time I checked, you two have a Tourney game to suit up for in oh, say, half an hour?" Mal couldn't resist mocking them.  
  
The sounds of their sad little groans were just too amusing.  
  
"Evie and I are gonna head for the bleachers before all the good seats are taken, okay? See you there."  
  
Hand in hand, she and Evie walked off. The sight of the boys really was a funny one, but in spite of evil being her namesake, Evie knew better than to abandon them.  
  
"Mal, you can't just leave them like that."  
  
"You know my spellbook almost as well as I do. Try something," Mal smiled at her.  
  
And Evie didn't need to be told twice. All her waiting, her patience and impatience, her struggle and will and desire to break the lock on her powers, and here she was—letting her magic loose while Mal proudly looked on. She didn't need to wake up from a dream when she kissed Mal, because all of this was really a dream come true.  
  
_"Be the strongest, be the best, there's no need for any rest,"_  she recited the incantation perfectly from memory.  
  
With one hand kept tight within Mal's she raised the other, sparks of blue dancing through the air as a wave of her hand and a twist of the wrist cast the spell and sent Jay and Carlos jumping to their feet, eyes wide and alert and big boyish smiles brightening their features as they ran off inside the school to change into their Tourney uniforms, full of energy and ready to win.  
  
"Very nice," Mal laughed happily.  
  
"Thank you!"  
  
"...You know, without Ben being spelled, it looks like I won't be the plus one at his coronation. And if I can't steal the wand at his coronation, it looks like we might have a  _long_  time to wait before we have a good enough chance again."  
  
Evie got her drift.  
  
"How long?" she played along with Mal's game.  
  
"Really long. Super long. Like, until-graduation-long or maybe even longer because, you know, time is a tricky thing."  
  
Evie stopped their walk to the Tourney field for the sole purpose of hugging Mal tight, settling into the scent of shampoo and shower gel that made her feel absolutely lighter than air. And hey, she had magic now. If she wasn't careful she might actually float away past the clouds and into the stars, but as long as she brought Mal with her, that didn't seem like such a terrible fate at all.  
  
"...Did I mention that I'm in love with you?" she whispered in Mal's ear, her voice muffled by violet hair.  
  
"You did, you really did. But seeing as I've never heard those words in all sixteen years of my life, I'll probably need to hear them some more."  
  
"Don't worry Mal. You will."


End file.
